Data collection and dissemination system with terminal having literature distribution

ABSTRACT

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a system for collecting and disseminating customer data and for distributing real estate marketing literature. The system includes a customer terminal, which is in communication with a data center, which, in turn, is in communication with a business terminal. The customer terminal includes a device for inputting customer data and a device for distributing relevant marketing literature. The customer data is sent to the data center, where it is stored for subsequent retrieval by a sales person using the business terminal.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from, and is a divisional of, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/408,212, filed Apr. 20, 2006, whichclaims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.60/728,042, filed Oct. 17, 2005, and U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 60/772,531, filed Feb. 10, 2006. U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/408,212 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. Nos.60/728,042 and 60/772,531 are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the field of real estate, and in particular the new home market,there is a need to identify customers that may potentially purchasehomes. Such customers—often called “leads”—typically attend an “openhouse” or showcase weekend with the goal of evaluating a property todetermine if they want to purchase it. At a showcase weekend, realestate professionals such as sales people try to meet each customerpersonally and, in the process, ascertain customer data such as his orher name, contact information, price range, and property preferences.

In some instances, showcase weekends are so busy that, regardless of thesales staff's efforts, some customers visit the property but are neverapproached personally. In these situations, a never approached customermay become discouraged because his or her questions regarding theproperty are not answered. Moreover, because the promotional materialsare expensive to produce (especially for upscale communities), marketingliterature (e.g., brochures, pamphlets, flyers, and the like) is rarelyleft out for pickup. Accordingly, customers often leave a showcaseweekend with little or no information regarding the property and itsofferings while the sales staff fails to collect leads.

Additionally, even when a sales person has the ability to talk directlywith a customer, that customer may prefer not to interface directly withthe sales person. For example, the customer may be intimidated by overlyaggressive salespeople; or, the customer may simply want to view theproperty, retrieve relevant marketing literature, and leave withoutinvesting much time.

Thus, a need exists for a device that can—without the involvement of asales person—collect customer data, provide customers with relevantmarketing literature, and disseminate the customer data to the salesstaff.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a system forcollecting and disseminating customer data and for distributingmarketing literature. The system includes a customer terminal, which islinked (by wire or wirelessly) to a data center, which, in turn, islinked (by wire or wirelessly) to a business terminal.

A customer can input his customer data into the customer terminal andreceive real estate marketing literature dispensed or otherwise madeavailable by the customer terminal. The data center receives thecustomer data from the customer terminal and stores it. A sales personcan operate the business terminal to access the customer data from thedata center.

In use, a customer may approach a customer terminal positioned in thelobby of the sales office of a new community and filled with real estatemarketing literature related to one or more of the properties being soldwithin that community. The customer inputs his or her name, contactinformation, price range, and purchase criteria. The customer terminal(or data center) then determines which product literature is relevant tothe customer, and provides that literature to the customer. Informationregarding the customer's name, contact information, price range,purchase criteria, and what literature he or she was provided istransmitted to the data center. Subsequently, sales people can use thebusiness terminals to access such information to follow up on the“leads”.

Optionally, the customer terminal can be configured to provide the sameproduct literature to all customers. Thus, there would be no need fordetermining which product literature to provide to a customer.

Optionally, a terminal can function as both a customer terminal and abusiness terminal for use by both customers and sales people (atdifferent times). Such a terminal can send customer data to the datacenter and access customer data from the data center.

Optionally, a terminal can function as a customer terminal, businessterminal, and data center. Such a terminal can collect customer datafrom customers and store it locally for later retrieval by sales people.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a customer terminal accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system for collecting anddisseminating customer data and for distributing marketing literatureaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method of operation of a customerterminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view of an alternative customerterminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a customer terminal 100 that may be used to collectdata from real estate customers (e.g., potential buyers) and distributeto them real estate marketing literature (e.g., brochures, pamphlets,flyers, and the like). The customer terminal 100 includes a chassis 102that houses a display 104, keyboard 106, and trough 108 along a frontsurface 110 of the chassis 102. While the chassis 102 is depicted assubstantially rectangular, it is to be appreciated that the shape ismerely exemplary of a preferred embodiment. The chassis 102 isconfigured to support the remaining components of the customer terminal100.

The chassis 102 also houses a controller, memory, and a literature binthat are located fully within the chassis 102 and not illustrated. Theliterature bin is loaded by an operator with marketing literature.

The display 104 may be any known display device capable of displayinginformation for a customer to view. For example, the display 104 couldcomprise a video screen employing CRT, LCD, DLP, or LCOS technology; or,also for example, the display 104 could comprise a LED. The display 104is controlled by the controller in accordance with program softwarestored in the memory and input received by the keyboard 106.

The trough 108 is configured to receive marketing literature dispensedfrom the literature bin in response to a customer's input at thekeyboard 106.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system 200 for collecting anddisseminating customer data and for distributing marketing literature.The system 200 includes a plurality of customer terminals 100 connectedto a data center 202 via communication links 212. The communicationlinks 212 may be wired or wireless. A wired communication link 212, forexample, could be established through a modem, cable internetconnection, direct wired electrical connection, or any other known wiredconnection. A wireless communication link 212, for example, could beestablished through a wireless LAN, wireless WAN, cellular communicationchannel, or any other known wireless connection.

The system 200 also includes a plurality of business terminals 204, 206,208, and 210 connected to the data center 202 via communication links214. Like the communication links 212, the communication links 214 maybe wired or wireless. Optionally, the business terminals 204, 206, 208,and 210 may be personal computers with Internet access.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a preferred method of operation 300 ofthe customer terminal 100. The method 300 comprises a number of steps302-326 (odd numbers excluded). The method 300 begins and proceeds inresponse to customer input using the keyboard 106. For example, at step302, the customer may hit the “enter” button on the keyboard 106 inresponse to an instruction on a “welcome screen” on the display 104. Atstep 304, a customer may hit the “y” button in response to whether ornot he wishes to initiate a transaction.

Once initiated, the display 104 on the customer terminal 100 prompts thecustomer to input a user profile in step 306. The user profile is thenrecorded in step 308 to the memory located within the customer terminal100. Optionally, the user profile may be immediately transmitted to thedata center 202.

The user profile solicited from, and input by, customers may vary.However, a typical user profile may include the following, and may bedisplayed in a table on the display 104 as follows:

DATA TYPE DATA INPUT NAME John Customer ADDRESS 2346 Fake St. CITY SANDIEGO STATE CA ZIP CODE 92118 EMAIL JOHNDOE@EMAIL.COM PHONE NO. (619)555-9923 HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT US? Internet PROPERTY CRITERIA 2 BR/2 BATIME TO PURCHASE 6 Months PRICE RANGE $450,000-$600,000 WORKING WITH ANAGENT? Yes IF SO, WHO? Joe Broker AGENCY Roe & Doe Real Estate AGENTPHONE NO. (858) 555-3456

It is to be appreciated that the user profile outlined in the Tableabove is merely exemplary of the types of user profiles which might beinput at the customer terminal 100.

After the user profile is input, the method 300 proceeds to step 310,which prompts the customer to input data regarding properties in whichhe is interested in order to create a property profile. The propertyprofile may include specific properties, architectural styles, floorplans, models, etc. of which the customer is interested. The propertyprofile is then recorded in step 312 to the memory located within thecustomer terminal 100.

In step 314, the customer terminal 100 transmits the user profile andproperty profile (both of which are generally referred to herein ascustomer data) to the data center 202. The data center 202 stores thecustomer data on an internally-located memory (not shown). Additionally,in step 318, the data center 202, through use of an internally-locatedcontroller (not shown), analyzes the customer data to determine whichpieces of marketing literature the customer terminal 100 shouldpotentially disseminate to the customer.

In step 318, the display 104 asks the customer whether he or she wantsto receive marketing literature. If the customer declines the offer by,for example, pressing button “n” on the keyboard 106, the method 300proceeds to step 326 and ends.

If the customer accepts the offer by, for example, pressing button “y”on the keyboard 106, the method 300 proceeds to step 322, and theapplicable marketing literature is dispensed into the trough 108. Thecustomer can then retrieve the marketing literature from the trough 108.

Optionally, the customer terminal 100 can be configured to dispense theapplicable marketing literature only after verifying a portion of thecustomer's user profile. For example, the customer terminal 100 (or thedata center 202) could send an email to the email address provided toverify that it is a valid email address. If the email address isinvalid, the customer terminal 100 (or the data center 202) shouldreceive a “bounced back” email or error message. Thus, the system 200can be configured to provide for the dispensing of marketing materialsonly if a “bounced back” email or error message is not received within aset period of time, such as 5 seconds.

In step 324, the customer terminal 100 informs the data center 202 thatthe applicable literature was dispensed. The method 300 then ends atstep 326.

A short lag time after the method 300 ends, step 302 is automaticallyactivated and the “welcome screen” returns to the display 104.

The customer data that is stored in the data center 202 can bedownloaded to, or otherwise accessed by, the business terminals 204,206, 208, and 210, Thus, sales people may use the business terminals204, 206, 208, and 210 to access the user profiles and property profilesof customers in order to follow up on leads, better identify potentialbuyers, identify customers that do not have agents, and more efficientlymatch customers with the properties of their interest.

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative customer terminal 400 in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention. The customer terminal 400includes a chassis 402 that has a convex front surface 404. The frontsurface 404 includes a placard holder 406, display 408, left and rightaudio speakers 410, keyboard 412, door 414, and printer slot 416.

While the chassis 402 is depicted as having a convex front surface 404,it is to be appreciated that the shape of the chassis 402 is merelyexemplary of a preferred embodiment. The chassis 402 is configured tosupport the other components of the customer terminal 400.

The chassis 402 also houses a controller, memory, literature bin, andprinter that are located fully within the chassis 402 and notillustrated. The literature bin is loaded by an operator with marketingliterature and is accessible via the door 414, which swings open alonghinges (not shown) positioned along a right edge 418 of the frontsurface 404.

The customer terminal 400 is similar to that of the customer terminal100 but with some notable differences. The customer terminal 400includes the placard holder 406, which allows an operator to exhibit aplacard identifying, for example, the new community, the builder, and/orthe sales company. Further, unlike the customer terminal 100, thecustomer terminal 400 can prompt the customer through audio output (aswell as visual output) due to the addition of the speakers 410. Also,the customer terminal 400 can print material on demand via the printer,which is located inside the customer terminal 400 and not illustrated,and dispense the printed material through the printer slot 416.Additionally, while the customer terminal 100 dispenses marketingliterature from a customer-inaccessible literature bin to acustomer-accessible trough 108, the customer terminal 400 providescustomer access to the literature bin via the door 414. The door 414 iscontrolled by the controller of the customer terminal 400 and onlyunlocks in response to appropriate input on the keyboard 412.

While certain embodiments of the present invention provide immediateaccess to marketing literature, other embodiments may provide for thedistribution of marketing material via other delivery methods, such asby mail and email.

While certain embodiments of the present invention distribute marketingliterature, other embodiments may provide for the distribution ofmarketing material in a digital form such as on a CD or other digitalmedia.

While certain embodiments of the present invention describe a keyboardas a customer input device, other embodiments may include alternativeinput devices such as a keypad, touch-screen, mouse, trackball, ormicrophone.

While certain embodiments of the present invention describe a datacenter that determines which pieces of marketing literature the customerterminal should disseminate to a customer, other embodiments may includecustomer terminals that make the determination locally (withoutinstructions from the data center).

While certain embodiments of the present invention describe a system forcollecting and disseminating customer data and for distributingmarketing literature comprising a data center, customer terminals, andbusiness terminals, other embodiments may include dual use terminalsthat function as both customer terminals and business terminals.

While certain embodiments of the present invention describe a system forcollecting and disseminating customer data and for distributingmarketing literature comprising a data center, customer terminals, andbusiness terminals, other embodiments may include a stand-alone terminalthat can collect and store a customer's data for later retrieval by asales person, and distribute marketing material to the customer.

While certain embodiments of the present invention distribute realestate marketing literature, other embodiments may provide for thedistribution of literature regarding other industries or matters.

While the invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to theparticular embodiment disclosed, but that the invention will include allembodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

1. A method of collecting potential home buyer leads and distributingpromotional materials, said method comprising the steps of: receiving ata customer terminal customer data entered via an input device;transmitting said customer data from said customer terminal to a datacenter; and after receiving said customer data at said data center,dispensing promotional materials from said customer terminal.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: accessing via a business terminalsaid customer data stored at said data center.
 3. The method of claim 1wherein said dispensing comprises releasing a door to a literature bin.4. The method of claim 1 wherein said customer data includes userprofile data and property profile data.
 5. The method of claim 1 whereinat least a portion of said customer data is verified before saiddispensing of said promotional materials from said customer terminal. 6.The method of claim 1 wherein said customer terminal comprises one of aprinter and an audio speaker.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein saidinput device is one of a keyboard, keypad, touch-screen, mouse,trackball, or microphone.